bill - 1:26 am on Nov 10, 2010 (gmt 0)

Another one bites the dust...

IAC's Diller Surrenders to Google, Cuts Jobs, Ends Ask.com Search Effort [bloomberg.com] Ask.com, the Internet search engine that media mogul Barry Diller acquired for $1.85 billion to compete with Google Inc., is cutting 130 engineering jobs and conceding much of its search business to competitors. Ask.com, a unit of Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp, is dismissing engineers based in Edison, New Jersey, and in Hangzhou, China, and ceasing work on its algorithmic search technology, according to Ask.com President Doug Leeds. The search unit will consolidate its engineering operations at its headquarters in Oakland, California, and focus its resources on developing its online question-and-answer service. Twenty of the engineers currently working in New Jersey will be asked to relocate to Oakland, the company said. Leeds said that Google has become too powerful a competitor to justify Ask.com’s continued pursuit of those search users.